Dublin, One City, Many Stories
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Dublin, One City, Many Stories
Video One: Joseph O’Connor
The first video features acclaimed writer and playwright, Professor Joseph O’Connor talking to writer and journalist, Madeleine Keane, on location in his hometown of Dún Laoghaire, in the DLR LexIcon Library and the James Joyce Tower & Museum in Sandycove.
We hope you enjoy.
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin in 1963. He attended UCD, Oxford University, and the University of Leeds. His novels include the million-selling Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light and Shadowplay, and the international bestsellers My Father’s House (a Washington Post Book of the Year) and The Ghosts of Rome. The latter two books are part of a projected trilogy inspired by Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty and the Escape Line he organised from within Vatican City during the Nazi occupation of Rome; the third novel, Lost Waters, will be published in 2027. Joseph O’Connor’s fiction has been shortlisted for the LA Times Book of the Year and twice for the Costa Award, and has won the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Napoli, an American Library Association Award, the American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the Eason An Post Novel of the Year, the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature, and the Prix Madeleine Zepter for European Novel of the Year. His work is translated into forty languages. A CD of his radio columns for RTE, The Drivetime Diaries, reached number one in the Irish charts. He is Frank McCourt Chair and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. Twice-Booker Prize-winner Peter Carey has commented: “There are few writers who can take us back in time through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O’Connor is a wonder.”
Madeleine Keane is the Literary Editor of the Sunday Independent. She has written and broadcast on books and publishing, regularly judges literary awards, and presents at arts festivals and events. She lectures on writing at UCD and the Irish Writers’ Centre. She is Chair of Children’s Books Ireland.
A six-part video series produced by the Irish Writers Centre in association with Dublin UNESCO City of Literature
Dublin, One City, Many Stories
This unique video series celebrates the 15th anniversary of Dublin as a member of UNESCO City of Literature and a promotion of the Irish Writers Centre’s work as an all-island resource for writers at all stages of their careers.
The aim is to look at literature and legacy, featuring iconic Irish writers from the past 50 years, contemporary writers from the past 15 years and recently emerging writers, all sharing their writing journey, their experiences of writing and performing in Dublin, their thoughts on Dublin as a muse, as a character in its own right, this city of division, riots and rebellions. We also showcase writers with various backgrounds, coming from different counties and countries who now call Dublin or Ireland home, celebrating the diversity they’ve added to the island’s creativity, a true celebration of all the nations, languages and experiences shaping today’s thriving Irish literature scene.
The episodes will roll out monthly from July and viewers will hear from Amy Abdullah Barry, Andrew Hughes, Aoife Barry, Cauvery Madhavan, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Ciara Ni É, Emmet Kirwan, Gustav Parker Hibbett, John Banville, Joseph O’Connor, Madeleine Keane, Marian Keyes, Melatu Uche Okorie, Mike McCormack, Nandi Jola, Neil Jordan, Nuala O’Connor, Olivia Fitzsimons, Peter Sirr, Rafael Mendes, Rick O’Shea, Suad Aldarra, Victoria Kennefick. From candid conversations about getting published to comical reflections on Dublin’s quirks, the series is both an homage and a celebration.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Emma Blain, at the press launch at the Irish Writers Centre in June, said of the series “Dublin, One City, Many Stories, captures Dublin and it’s choruses and cobbles, songs and stories, characters and the essential creators who captured them over the past 50 years. It feels like a passing of a baton, or perhaps more aptly, a turning of the page; an acknowledgement of all that has been, of all that has made it so illuminating and a nod all those writers who are leading the way towards the stories future generations will be raised upon.”
Anne-Marie Kelly, Director of Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, said: “This project encapsulates everything we hoped to spotlight during our 15th anniversary – a city of layered stories, shaped by legacy but alive with new perspectives. The series is a perfect companion piece to Dublin City Libraries’ One Dublin, One Book.”
Mags McLoughlin, CEO of the Irish Writers Centre said: “This series is a rousing call to every writer, reader, dreamer and scribbler who’s ever felt the pull of the pen. For the Irish Writers Centre to be involved in an initiative like this, celebrating the full spectrum of Irish and international writing talent, is a joy and a privilege.”
After Questions, the trailer
While filming the series with Arcade Film, we asked each of the writers involved a series of After Questions, curating as many different answers as possible to the same set of questions which we will share as resources on our website over the course of the next 6 months. You can watch a 5-minute completion of some of their responses below.
